CHENNAI,
FEB. 24.
Tamil Nadu has announced a fast track clearance system for multistorey buildings to house information technology (IT) companies. This was announced by the IT Secretary, Vivek Harinarain, at a core committee meeting here today. The committee has been formed recently under the guidance of the IT Secretary, the Managing Director of the Electronic Corporation of Tamil Nadu Ltd. (ELCOT), the Chief Urban Planner of Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority and construction industry to promote Tamil Nadu as an ``IT destination of choice''.

According to Mr. Harinarain, earlier the clearance process took more than six weeks. This has been brought down to four weeks. The Government, through the IT department, motivated agencies such as the Airports Authority of India, the Fire and Rescue service, the traffic police and the Corporation to enable fast track clearance to IT builders. The Government has decided to give top priority to multistorey IT buildings by asking the CMDA to give in-principle clearance within the specified period based on the certification from ELCOT.

ELCOT Managing Director, Sudeep Jain, said approval had been granted for 10 building plans for IT and IT-Enabled Services for a total of 1.7 million sq ft. The construction industry had committed itself to construction of 1.7 million sq ft buildings for housing the companies at an investment of Rs. 350 crores.

ELCOT has already approved 10 investments in Chennai so far. Among them are a project on the IT Highway at Karapakkam with a build-up area of 2.4 lakh sq ft and another on LB Road, Adyar, with an area of 1.06 lakh sq ft.

Mr. Jain said that as per Nasscom, the estimated space for the next three years was of the order of 17 million sq ft assuming that Tamil Nadu would continue to maintain 17 per cent of the Indian software market.